When you hear a great song, you can think of where you were when you first heard it, the sounds, the smells. It takes the emotions of a moment and holds it for years to come. It transcends time. A great song has all the key elements — melody; emotion; a strong statement that becomes part of the lexicon; and great production. Think of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” by Queen. That song had everything — different melodies, opera, R&B, rock — and it explored all of those different genres in an authentic way, where it felt natural.

When I’m writing a song that I know is going to work, it’s a feeling of euphoria. It’s how a basketball player must feel when he starts hitting every shot, when you’re in that zone. As soon as you start, you get that magic feeling, an extra feeling. Songs like that come out in five minutes; if I work on them more than, say, 20 minutes, they’re probably not going to work.

The Four Tops, ‘Baby I Need Your Loving’

The Four Tops were playing a Detroit nightclub when they got a call from Brian Holland saying he had a song ready for them. After their show ended, they arrived at Hitsville at 2 a.m. to record "Baby I Need Your Loving," which would become their first single for Motown.

The Temptations, ‘Just My Imagination’

Eddie Kendricks, who'd sung lead on the Temptations' first hit, "The Way You Do the Things You Do" in 1964, took his last lead as a Tempt. By the time the song hit Number One, Kendricks had left the group for a solo career. But he gave this one his all: Tempt Otis Williams said he left the studio at 6 a.m. the night they cut it, and Kendricks was still there, working out his part.

The Police, ‘Roxanne’

"That song has been the turnaround for us," Stewart Copeland told Rolling Stone. Sting came up with the idea for the song while wandering around the red-light district of Paris after a canceled show, wondering what it would be like to be in love with a prostitute. The title came from a poster for the play Cyrano de Bergerac — featuring a heroine named Roxanne — in the band's hotel lobby in Paris.

Elton John, ‘Tiny Dancer’

Lyricist Taupin wrote this 1971 song about his first wife, Maxine Feibelman, who really was a seamstress for John's band and obviously did marry a music man. John's skyrocketing melody got a little help from Paul Buckmaster's strings and from Rick Wakeman, soon to join prog-rockers Yes, who played organ. "Tiny Dancer" was revived in the 2000 film Almost Famous.

Eric B. and Rakim, ‘Know You Got Soul’

Writers: Eric B. and Rakim Producers: Eric B. and Rakim Released: July '87, 4th and Broadway Did Not Chart

Rakim was the microphone fiend who was dripping steam. Eric B. was the DJ with the James Brown samples. They were New York legends before ever releasing a song ("Eric B. was driving a Rolls-Royce before he ever put out a record," Chris Rock once told Rolling Stone. "My man was gangsta"), but this cut, named for a 1971 song by Brown sideman Bobby Byrd, made the whole world take notice.

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, ‘Ohio’

On May 4th, 1970, the National Guard killed four protesters at Kent State University in Ohio. Young wrote a fiery indictment of the shootings, and CSNY cut their version of the song just 11 days after the tragedy, then rush-released it, knocking their own "Teach Your Children" off the charts. "David Crosby cried when we finished this take," said Young.

The Beatles, ‘Ticket to Ride’

Lennon claimed that this composition of his was the first heavy-metal song. For his part, McCartney played lead guitar. "We almost invented the idea of a new bit of a song on the fade-out," he said of "Ticket." "It was quite radical at the time."

The Allman Brothers Band, ‘Whipping Post’

This anthem was written on an ironing board in a darkened Florida bedroom by Allman. Punctuated by Duane Allman's knifelike guitar incisions, the song is best appreciated in the 23-minute incarnation on At Fillmore East.

The Verve, ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’

Since it used a sample from an orchestral version of the Rolling Stones' "The Last Time," this song was credited to Jagger–Richards. But Allen Klein, who owned the "Last Time" rights, broke an agreement and demanded 100 percent of the royalties. Ashcroft called it the best song the Stones had written in 20 years.

Aaron Neville, ‘Tell It Like It Is’

"I heard 'Tell It Like It Is' and I said, 'Bro, this is the shit right here,'" said Art Neville. Aaron was working as a longshoreman when he cut this sublime ballad. He originally felt something so sweet wouldn't catch on in an era of gritty R&B. "A lot of people come up to me and say, 'That song got me and my wife together,'" he recalled. "And others say, 'It broke me and my wife up.'"

Elton John, ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’

Inspired by the Rolling Stones' Goats Head Soup, John and lyricist Taupin went to Kingston, Jamaica, to record John's sixth album. "The studio was surrounded by barbed wire," said Taupin, "and there were guys with machine guns." Too scared to leave their hotel, the duo wrote 21 songs in three days, including "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road."

R.E.M., ‘Radio Free Europe’

"We hated it," said Peter Buck of the sound on the first version of "Europe," on indie label Hib-Tone. "It was mastered by a deaf man, apparently." R.E.M. rerecorded it for Murmur, with a richer melody and tighter rhythm — "like Motown," Buck recalled. Michael Stipe mumbled his lyrics — a vague riff on U.S. cultural imperialism — because he hadn't finished writing them when it was time to record.

U2, ‘Pride (In the Name of Love)’

The chords came from a 1983 soundcheck in Hawaii; the lyrics about Martin Luther King Jr. were inspired by an exhibit at Chicago's Peace Museum. With backing vocals by Pretenders singer Chrissie Hynde (credited as Mrs. Christine Kerr; she was married to Jim Kerr of Simple Minds at the time), the result was the band's first Top 40 hit.

Ray Charles, ‘Hit the Road Jack’

Charles asked Mayfield, a one-time R&B hitmaker whose performing career was curtailed by a car accident in 1952, if he had any songs for Charles to record. Mayfield offered up "Hit the Road Jack." The snarling female vocal was provided by Margie Hendricks of the Raelettes. Hendricks' affair with Charles produced a son in 1959; Charles fired her from the Raelettes in 1964.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs, ‘Maps’

"Maps" is both a soul ballad and an art-punk classic, with torrents of jagged guitar noise and thundering drums backing up Karen O's lovesick wail. The YYY's breakthrough hit was inspired by a case of real-life rock & roll romance: The Divine Miss O (real name Karen Orzolek) wrote the song about being on tour and missing her boyfriend, Angus Andrew, singer for fellow New York band Liars.

Radiohead, ‘Fake Plastic Trees’

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke would describe "Fake Plastic Trees" as the song on which he found his lyrical voice. He cut the vocal, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, in one take, then the band filled in its parts around him. Yorke said the song began as "a very nice melody which I had no idea what to do with, then you wake up and find your head singing some words to it."

Pink Floyd, ‘Another Brick in the Wall Part 2’

Waters' attack on teachers who practice "dark sarcasm in the classroom" was inspired by his own schoolmasters. "The school I was at — they were really like that," Waters said. "[All] they had to offer was their own bitterness and cynicism." There are three versions of "Another Brick" on The Wall, but "Part 2" was the hit.

Chuck Berry, ‘Brown Eyed Handsome Man’

Berry was inspired to write this song while he was touring through heavily black and Latino areas of California. As Berry put it, "I didn't see too many blue eyes." He did see a good-looking Chicano nabbed for loitering until "some woman came up shouting for the policeman to let him go." Over a manic guitar lick, the song spins a riotous tale about a dark-eyed loverman.

Sam Cooke, ‘Wonderful World’

Cooke was rooming with Adler, who had already finished this song when Cooke came up with the academic conceit that made it work. Cut while Cooke was still signed to Keen, it sat around until he'd moved to RCA — then sold a million. Before it came out, Cooke liked to sing it for women he met, telling them he'd made it up on the spot just for them.

Television, ‘Marquee Moon’

"Marquee Moon" is Television's guitar epic; Verlaine and Richard Lloyd stretch out for 10 minutes of urban paranoia. "I would play until something happened," Verlaine said. "That comes from jazz, or even the Doors, or the Five Live Yardbirds album — that kinda rave-up dynamics."

The Who, ‘I Can’t Explain’

For their debut single, the Who recorded Townshend's alleged answer to the Kinks' blazing "You Really Got Me." The Who even hired that song's producer, Talmy, who recruited additional players for the recording, among them Jimmy Page, who contributed rhythm guitar.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience, ‘The Wind Cries Mary’

A dish-smashing argument with his girlfriend left Hendrix alone to scrawl the words to "The Wind Cries Mary" in January 1967. A few days later, the guitarist taught the uncharacteristically tender ballad — built around a gentle riff inspired by soul man Curtis Mayfield — to the Experience. The trio knocked out the track in 20 minutes.

Bo Diddley, ‘I’m a Man’

The B side of Diddley's first single was built around a four-note guitar stomp that was a trademark of mid-Fifties Chicago blues. Songwriter Willie Dixon, who supervised the 1955 session, said it was Diddley's sense of rhythm that set him apart from everyone else at Chess: "The drums are speaking, and he'll tell you what the drums are saying."